Light Turkey-Stuffed Peppers

Posted by CK in couscous, easy, light, peppers, recipe, turkey

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Stuffed peppers. I always thought it was a very complex and long process to make. It just always looks so delicious and exotic in cookbooks, so I never thought I had the culinary prowess to come up with something so complex.

Last time I had my friend Annie over though, we decided to give it a shot. What's the worst thing that could've happened - except, you know, burning down the house? We substituted the traditional rice for couscous (because neither of us can cook rice properly. Guilty.), and added some vegetables to the mix.

Luckily for us, we didn't burn down my brand new condo and our dish turned out to be absolutely delectable and fairly easy to make! I would definitely file this under the "easy" category. PLUS, it's a great dish to please the crowds! Not sure what to cook your partner tonight but want to prepare a low-budget fancy date? Turkey-Stuffed Peppers! Having people over and not sure what to serve them? Turkey-Stuffed Peppers! Yes, this recipe is quite versatile!

Seriously, you won't regret it.

Ingredients (yields 4 portions):

• 2 large red peppers, halfed and cleaned out
• 1/2 cup couscous
• Half a pound of extra-lean ground turkey
• 1/2 large zucchini, diced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic (more or less, depending on your love for garlic)
• 2 tsp Italian herbs seasonning
• Grated cheese of your choice (we used Light cheddar)
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Water

Method:

1. Cook the couscous according to package instructions (I simply boil some water and pour it over the couscous in a bowl. Ready in 5 minutes!)
2. In the meantime, fry up your onions and garlic in olive oil until your onion starts becoming translucent.
3. Add your turkey to the pan and cook it completely.
4. Add the zucchini, the italian herbs, salt and pepper, and continue cooking for approximately 5 minutes.
5. Add the tomato paste and a tbsp of water, mix everything well. 
6. Once your meat mixture is ready, add it to your couscous and mix well.
7. Stuff your half peppers with your couscous/meat mixture and place them in a deep oven-proof dish.
8. Add about 1.5 tbsp of water to the bottom of your dish, cover with alluminum foil and place in pre-heated oven at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes.
9. Remove the alluminum foil and top the peppers with cheese.
10. Place back in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Have some left over mixture? Freeze it and save it for your next event! 

Enjoy!

- CK

DIY Veggie Garden

Posted by CK in cucumber, gardening, peppers, vegetable

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For a while now, I've been thinking about starting my own veggie garden. I honestly didn't think it was possible since I live in an apartment, until I found a wonderful chart on Pinterest (see image below). Planting your own garden can be an excellent way to make sure you're eating organic food and to save money (bell peppers can get expensive if you use a lot).


Starting indoors was perfect for me. When summer comes I will easily be able to transplant my garden into big pots onto my balcony. But before I started, I still had a lot of questions I needed answered: what type of soil should I get? What vegetables would I be planting? How big should my pots be? So, I went to Walmart where they were very helpful in helping me choose everything I needed to get my garden started.

First, I chose to plant cucumbers and mini bell peppers. As I don't have a very good track record with keeping plants alive, I thought they would probably be the easiest to plant and take care of.  Note that you can definitely use the seeds of the veggies you have at home! I was just too lazy and decided to purchase them :P

The very helpful young man at Walmart suggested I use Organic Choice as my soil of choice. It's specific to vegetables, is organic and is good for starting indoors and transplanting outdoors - using the same soil.

Once you get home, plant your seeds into pots. I bought biodegradable pots that I can just plant directly into my bigger pots once it's time to transplant, but you can easily use plastic yogurt boxes (make sure you pierce holes at the bottom).

That's it! 3 easy steps! Now, set next to a window and watch your veggies grow! :) Make sure to do a little bit of research on your veggies before you plant your garden. I found out that cucumbers and bell peppers need a lot of water so should water them daily!

Stute Kitchen will be taking a 2 week break to take care of the garden! We'll see you then with new recipes and an update on the garden! :)

Have fun!!

- CK

Cottage Component 2!: Summer-Lovin' Sweet and Sour Skewers

Posted by amanda in budget, chicken, grill, kabobs, onion, peppers, recipe, sauce, shrimp, skewers, zucchini

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Before we left for our cottage adventure, CK came up with a great plan for feeding us right: we adjusted a recipe she found in a magazine to suit our group's budget and tastes, and came up with this winner! The quantities on this one are rough, because it really depends who you're trying to feed - our menfolk ate easily three times are many skewers apiece as we did. That being said, we served 6 people for about 6$ a head (including the pasta salad). We made around 40 skewers with this quantity of marinade, but that included a bunch that were just shrimp, without veggies. These, as it turns out, are a big hit, so when you run out of veggies and chicken, begin skewering just shrimp, and you will be everyone's favorite.

Marinade: (Note: Because I don't eat chicken, we split up our shrimp and chicken into different batches, dividing this amount of marinate between two bowls, and divvying up the veggies accordingly as well)

Props to Remy: Our host and a master griller!

In a large bowl (you'll be putting your chicken shrimp and veggies in here too) mix together...



3 tbsp ketchup
3 tbsp soy sauce (try to get reduced sodium)
3 tbsp sugar
1.5 tbsp apple cider vinegar

 Skewer ingredients: 

• 3 small zucchinis, chopped into rounds
• 1 green pepper, deseeded and chopped into chunks
• 1  red pepper, likewise
• 1 sweet onion (we used the leftovers from the pasta salad), cut into chunky wedges
• An orange pepper would be a nice addition too, chopped into chunks
• 1 bag frozen deveined shrimp (ours was a bag of 60-70 shrimp) - if you can buy them uncooked with tails off, power to you. Or, you can spend a good 15 minutes taking the tails off these babies if you REALLY love your guests).
• 4 chiclen breasts, cut into chunks

Mix skewer ingredients into marinade (whether you keep' em separated or not), and let sit for about 15 minutes. If you like your skewers really juicy, set aside a few spoonfuls to brush onto the cooked skewers. Skewer ingredients onto sticks, alternating meat with vegetables for as long as possible. Grill on the BBQ for about 4 minutes each side. Serve immediately. Pairs nicely with the Picnic-Perfect Pasta Salad!

Grill on!

-A

Chunky Meaty Fantastically Easy Pasta Sauce

Posted by CK in beef, carrot, celery, mushroom, pasta, peppers, recipe, sauce

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Everyone has their personal recipe for a deliciously meaty pasta sauce. When I was still living with the 'rents, I used to LOVE how my mom always made her sauce so chunky! Once I got my own place, I wanted to get the taste of this delicious and easy meal but always failed at making it as good as my mom's. In search of a great recipe, A's mom gave me her family recipe and with a little personal touches, this recipe turned out to be so delicious, I can almost say that it's better than my mom's!! (sorry mom). It's perfect to freeze up, and it's got all kinds of good vegetables in there!

Once you're done with this recipe, you'll want to eat it up with a spoon, forget about the pasta and eat more for lunch the next day. Feed it to your boyfriend before they go out and play sports and they will be on adrenaline! Here's what you need to do to get your (and your man's) taste buds going:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 table spoon of olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 lb ground beef (you can substitute this with turkey or half turkey and half beef)
• 1 yellow or orange pepper (or both, or a different colour. Whichever one you prefer really)
• mushroom (as many as you want, I usually take about half of those white mushroom boxes)
• 1 large celeri stem
• 1 large carrot
• 1 medium can of Aylmer Tomato Soup (sometimes I use a can of diced tomatoes, but the soup tastes better)
• 1 small can of tomato paste (preferrably plain - without any added spices)
• 3/4 table spoon of oregano
• 3/4 table spoon of thyme
• salt and pepper to taste

Putting the deliciousness together:

1. Chop your onions is small pieces and caramelize them in the olive oil in a large pot on medium-high heat. Add your crushed garlic into the pan and stir.
2. Add your meat to the onion mix and stir to make sure that all the meat cooks well.
3. Cut up all your vegetables and add them to the meat/onion mixture. Stir for another 2-3 minutes. *Note: it's easier if your vegetables are prepped beforehand, but I often simply chop them while the meat is cooking.
4. Add your tomato paste and tomato soup. Stir well for the sauce to cover the entire mixture.
5. Add your oregano, thyme, salt and pepper. Stir very well.
6. Cover and let simmer for at least 2 hours (longer if you have time). Stir once in a while.

That's it! :) The long part is the simmering, but it's sooo worth it! The sauce comes out chunky and meaty. If you like it more liquidy, you can add some water. Also (although I haven't tried it yet), perhaps some tempeh or tofu would be a good substitute for the beef for vegetarians out there.

Enjoy and feel free to play around with this recipe!! Let me know how it turns out! :D

-CK

Mamma's Turkey Recipe

Posted by CK in peppers, recipe, turkey

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I know, I know...the holidays are over (boooo). Yet, I still crave some of the food I had over the holidays!! Having newly been introduced to the traditional Christmas dinner in the last two years by A, I had the desire to host one myself! That's why A and I invited his hockey team over for a delicious pot luck, which involved me cooking a turkey.

My mom's always been famous for her most delicious turkey. Never having cooked a turkey in my life, I decided to try and go ahead with her recipe and hoped to God that I wouldn't disappoint our guests! It turned out absolutely amazing and it was the simplest thing to make!! I cooked it the night before too so I wasn't in a rush to make it the evening of the party! Here's how:

Get:
- 3 large green bell peppers
- 4 large red bell peppers
- 6 large onions
- 2 tablespoons of margarine (or butter)
- salt and pepper
- 1 6 lb frozen turkey, with skin
- a dash of olive oil

1. First, get your frozen turkey the night before your party. We didn't think that it would take us forever to unfreeze it. So make sure you give yourself plenty of time to unfreeze your turkey. How I did it? I put my turkey in the sink and soaked it in cold water for 3 hours, changing the water every half hour.
2. While the turkey is busy unfreezing, preheat your oven at 400 degrees F. Then, chop your vegetables into small pieces (that takes a while, which also wasn't anticipated. So give yourself some time to do that). Once everything's cut, mix with the margarine, salt and pepper and put on the side.
3. Once the turkey is mostly unfrozen (it may still have be frozen a bit on the inside, but that doesn't matter much. As long as the outside is, that's the important part), take it out of the sink and use salt to "clean" your turkey. Basically simply rub alot of salt on your turkey, no rinsing.
4. Separate the skin from the meat with your hand without ripping the skin off. That's where you'll put the stuffing in your turkey.
5. Once separated, stuff the turkey with your bell pepper/onion mix. I used my hands because I thought it would be easier to get it in there as much as possible.
6. Stuff the turkey as much as you can. Once the skin is done stuffing, try stuffing the neck as much as you can. DON'T THROW LEFT OVER STUFFING JUST YET!
7. Put your turkey - breast up - in a roasting pan and add the left over stuffing to the pan. Add a dash of olive oil on top of the turkey.
8. Cover your pan and cook until the skin is golden (about 3 hours).
9. Take your turkey out, let it cool. While still in the pan, put it in your fridge. You'll finish the cooking the next day.
10. About 2 hours before your guests arrive, take your turkey and flip it onto it's breast. don't throw out the juice that's in the pan. You want the breast to soak in the juice, that's how it doesn't dry out. Once flipped, put it back in the oven for 2 hours.

By the time your guests arrive, your turkey should be done!! Flip it onto a serving plate and put on your table for everyone to admire!

Note: I think the fact that the turkey was still a little frozen on the inside helped keep it moist.

Who said that turkey is only for the holidays? ;)

What were some of your favorite recipes from the holidays?! :D

Enjoy and good luck!!

-CK